Start Up Mindset

Being involved with a startup is a very exciting and rewarding opportunity.   Building an organization focused on a new idea or product; or how to improve upon something already being done in the market, can be an amazing life experience.  Along with the excitement and enthusiasm, there also comes the challenge of accomplishing a high volume of work with limited staff and financial resources.   A few lessons I’ve learned after my most recent journey with a startup:

• Stay Lean – Generally, startup company teams are comprised of a few key individuals with broad business knowledge who possess the drive and entrepreneurial spirit to create something new.  As a new company’s ideas, vision and products begin to take shape, the demands on the team will continually increase and there will likely be the need for more specialized skills or equipment. The company’s leadership certainly should not ignore these needs.  They should consider outsourcing or leasing, rather than hiring or purchasing, to fulfill these needs early in a company’s lifecycle.  A few examples might include legal, tax, employee benefits, payroll processing, bookkeeping, technology equipment and software.  Adopting a pay-as-you go approach to fulfilling these needs can preserve cash early in a company’s lifecycle.

• Standardize – Taking time to document, in writing, policies and procedures is critical.  Otherwise, the team will quickly become buried in the minutiae, trying to remember, “how do I pull that report again?” or “what are we allowed to expense for meals?” Spending time trying to remember how to perform day-to-day tasks is inefficient and diverts your efforts away from innovating and running the business.  It is human nature to forego compiling such documentation in favor of attacking the next challenge.  However, having this documentation permanently recorded in operations manuals, accounting manuals and employee handbooks will make life much easier.  I recommend, at a minimum, creating procedure memos, distributing them to the appropriate parties and aggregating them into an official “manual” later. Operational ability is key as a business transitions from a startup to an ongoing business.   Always strive to create repeatable processes that deliver predicable results.

• Measure – Company leaders must define and measure the business’s drivers to success.  Often, these metrics are quantified as you develop your strategic plan.  Generally, financial metrics receive the most attention.  It is important to also measure non-financial metrics, as these are often key drivers to success.  Examples include customer-focused metrics such as customer satisfaction or number of repeat customers.  The metrics will certainly vary among industries and for individual companies operating within the same industry.  Finally, don’t just measure what you currently have the ability to measure.  Rather, design systems to measure what should be measured.  Otherwise, you may miss key indicators that require attention or a strategy shift.

Startups are not for everyone, but if you can see the forest through the trees, the fun of bringing a product concept to life can be a rewarding challenge.  Taking the appropriate steps to preserve cash, document and standardize procedures and measure performance will make the process a little easier.

Guest Blogger:
David Harris has over 18 years of finance and operations business experience.  He is currently seeking to align himself with an organization where he can apply his skills as part of a team and contribute to its success.

You can contact David Harris via email at daveharris1074@gmail.com or via LinkedIn by visiting  http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidharriscpa/.

Ron Johnson & J.C. Penney

While past performance is a strong indicator of future performance there are a few small variables to take into account.

1. Is it the same field/industry/product line or even close? 

2. What is the starting point – complete clean slate or existing baggage? 

3. What is the support structure and team surrounding some one – weak, new, worn out?

4. How much time and flexibility do they have?

There are very few people that can do the same amazing things in one area/sport/business and then show the same level of skill in another. Finding a Jim Thorpe in business is rare and without knowing the starting field and unseen issues it is easy to miss the point with Johnson and J.C. Penny.

In all business there is risk. That risk can be so great that the chances of success are almost nil. The question should be, is JCPenny’s able to evolve and become relevant once again or has the world so changed and the brand has not that no matter who steps in there is almost not chance? Was this a DOA business turn around? Its one thing to launch the Apple store concept, it is a completely different thing to take something from the 1890’s and make it “a new!”

Maybe it is less about trying to bring in someone to create a change or even someone to try and bring back once was. Is it time for J.C. Penny’s, Sear’s, Kmart and other turn of the past century retailers to merge and become something new, something different?